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Overwatch is an award-winning team-based online multiplayer game based in the future on Earth. It is currently available to be played on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. It was released on May 24, 2016 by its developer and publisher, Blizzard Entertainment. The game has won awards such as Game of the Year, Best Multiplayer Game, Best Esports Game, and Best Studio/ Game Direction.

Essentially, this hero first-person shooter game consists of 24 playable characters, all referred to as heroes, and a new one said to be coming soon. Each character has different abilities that offer different advantages to their team. You can customize all the characters outfits, but it doesn’t change their abilities or their stats. You get skins from loot boxes, these are awards for leveling up and playing in certain modes (you may purchase them with real money as well). You can get skins, ranging from common to legendary; voice lines, emotes, sprays, hero intros, player icons, and currency.

Currency is used to buy cosmetic customizations for characters. Since Loot Boxes drop random things every time, currency can be useful to get that one skin you may want but couldn’t get in a loot box. One of the things I dislike about the game is how slow the loot box system is. Since you can get duplicates, it can be difficult to get new things, and most of the time, you get common level items from loot boxes.

The characters are very diverse in terms of personality and ability, as the game consists of characters from all around the world with different races and belief systems, this including one openly homosexual female character, a confirmed autistic character, and a few friendly Omnics as well.

Omnic’s are human-made robots that became self-aware and believe they all have souls. This led to the Omnic Crisis of 2046, where the Omnics went rogue trying to overthrow the human race. This is why Overwatch was formed in 2051, to try and stop the disposal of the human race. When the Omnic Crisis ended, one of the founders of Overwatch named Jack Morrison, currently known as Soldier: 76, was promoted to first official commander. This did not go well with another founder, Gabriel Reyes, currently known as Reaper, who thought he should’ve gotten the promotion. This led to conflict internally within Overwatch, some members siding with Morrison, others with Reyes, effectively tearing Overwatch apart from the inside out. This had eventually led to the disbandment of Overwatch and the passing of the Petras Act in 2072, making any Overwatch activity illegal and punishable by prosecution.

In the games present time, 2081, a character in the game named Winston, a former member of Overwatch, saw that the world was in anarchy without Overwatch to protect it, so he recalled the team despite what the law said. Though the base game is not directly related to the lore, many game elements are related so the game works as intended, with lore sprinkled in from the character’s voice lines, the interactions between characters, the clues left behind in different maps, and many other things as well.

The game has 15 amazingly detailed maps. There are maps from many well-known places in the world, ranging from America to Japan. There are maps from six out of the seven continents. The only continent that isn’t included is Australia, but to be fair there are two Australian characters.

Generally, a team is made up of 6 different characters, although other modes such as Elimination or No Limits, the rules are different. Many other game modes are playable as well, especially with the new “server browser” option, where players can adjust any setting to make the game the way they want to play, such as character speed, health, ability cool-downs, damage, etc., to which they’d be put on the browser for others to see and join.